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Education

In the recesses of Cal State Northridge’s Eucalyptus Hall, students covered head to toe in white suits build machine parts one atom thick.“You’re actually trying to protect the samples from the nastiness that comes off you,” said Prof. Henk Postma, who runs the university’s nanoscience and nanotechnology lab and “clean room.”Under Postma’s supervision, students...

Biology

LOS ANGELES >> For centuries, biology was limited by the available tools. Biologists had to be able to collect, dissect and illustrate their own samples before they could begin researching.But as the tools advance, what biologists can do improves along with it.“Medicine and biology are transitioning to a very data-rich science,” said Alexander Hoffmann, professor of microbioloogy at UCLA and the director of the university’s multidisciplinary

Education

POMONA >> As long as there have been college students, there has been beer on campus, but seldom like this.On Friday, Cal Poly Pomona will hold the grand opening for its Innovation Brew Works brewery, adjacent to campus at the university’s Innovation Village business complex.“There’s a high demand for skilled brewers in the industry, especially within the micro breweries,” said Aaron Neilson, director of...

Information technology

REDLANDS >> The reach of geographic information system technology extends across Redlands, the home of Esri, a supplier of GIS software and services. But for the first time now, it’s extending into traditionally non-technological majors at the University of Redlands, where information of all sorts is merged and analyzed with computerized maps.The university wants to...

Movie Reviews

The 52-year-old “Doctor Who” has long been a staple on United Kingdom television, with generations of children there famously watching from behind the family couch, hiding from the show’s various monsters, robots and aliens.In America, however, “Doctor Who” was only known as an obscure BBC science fiction show rebroadcast on PBS — until now.Today, a resurgent “Doctor Who” is

Embezzlement

“OK, I did it.”After years of embezzling from the Rialto Unified School District, former accountant Judith Oakes confessed to the crime in a school district office to a pair of Rialto Police Department detectives. Her confession can be heard in newly released interrogation audio and video files.Oakes is now serving five years in jail for embezzling $1.8 million in student lunch money.In an hour and 24 minutes of audio and 19 minutes of video released...

Education

Fifteen California community colleges will begin offering four-year college degrees within the next two years, including several in the Los Angeles region.“We’re thrilled to have this opportunity,” said Community College Board of Governors board president Geoffrey Baum, a former president of the Pasadena Area Community College District.The board selected the 15 colleges, each of which proposed a new degree not currently offered by the California State...

United States Supreme Court decisions

Californians on both sides of the gay marriage debate said they were excited by the Supreme Court’s announcement Friday that it will decide whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.The justices will take up gay-rights cases in April that ask them to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire nation that people can marry the partners of their choice, regardless of gender. A decision is expected by late June.“Right now, we are in this...

Education

POMONA >> Soraya M. Coley addressed Cal Poly Pomona faculty and staff as their president for the first time on Tuesday, calling the university “a beacon of hope.”Coley, Cal Poly’s first female president, took over from J. Michael Ortiz, who

Science fiction and fantasy literature

RIVERSIDE >> At one time, it was every geek’s worst nightmare: Come back from college, or even summer camp, and Mom has thrown or given away a beloved collection of dog-eared science fiction and fantasy novels.Oakland physician J. Lloyd Eaton beat the odds.In 1969, his estate bequeathed his collection of 7,500 hardback editions of science fiction, fantasy and horror books published between the late 19th century and 1955.But Eaton’s collection looked...